With smartphones in every pocket, and giant flat TVs in every living room, it’s safe to say that the future is indeed here. But if you need any more proof that robots will soon be crushing our flying cars to bits, look no further.

A scientist in Great Britain has theorized that “bionic eyes” that restore sight to the near and far sighted will be real and available within the next 5 years. The “eye” won’t resemble an eye at all, though. It will actually be a lense that is implanted on to your eye.

Lenses that aid in the restoration of both near and far sightedness have been around for years, but they’re not always that effective. Laser restoration, the other current solution, only really works for a short while until natural degeneration of your eyesight takes control. Now, Professor James Wolffsohn, of Aston University, says that lenses that will be a permanent solution will be available for under £1,000 in less than five years. Wolffsohn should know, too. He’s one of the lead scientists trying to find out just how to make the things.

Of course, this could just be a cheap ploy by Dr. Wolffsohn to grace some magazines or be blogged about, and the technology could be light years away from completion, but it’s nice to know, at least, that somebody is working on making Geordi La Forge’s visor obsolete two hundred years before it is invented.